I think I want an MGB GT Golf Cart

Seriously.

If I take a look at my driving habits, I seldom go more than about 20 miles from home in my daily travels.  When I do go further, I go much further, but I have a vehicle to deal with that.

I do have the poor GT that will never see any more touring adventures during my ownership. As I no longer have the patience to wait for the engine to warm up or tolerance of the hydrocarbon aroma on my person when I arrive somewhere, I thought why NOT go electric? No warmup, no stink and the acceleration that only an EV can provide with max torque at zero rpm. An MGB GT Golf Cart!

Other than the fact that I do not have a clue where to even start with such a project.

Guessing I would want at least 60 mile range to be of any practical use.  Is that doable as a DIY?

Can I cannibalize an existing EV for organs or  maybe even a full roller chassis ( 90" wheelbase)

How dangerous is it to work on EVs? I know how to not blow myself up with fuel in the tank, and to not stick my fingers in the go-aroundy bits, but no real muscle memory to keep me from being zapped.

Rather not spend a fortune on this.

How good do you want it to be? I think the EV retrofit world is changing and will be much better soon. We're still in the middle of the transition from "stick a motor on the trans and fill the trunk with lead-acid batteries" to a full EV drivetrain.

Best way to do it: convert to IRS and stick a drive unit between the rear wheels. Get one out of a Leaf or Bolt or Mini or Fiat or something. The Tesla units are probably too big, but a front drive unit might fit.  Fill the engine bay with enough battery to meet your range goals.

Second best way to do it: find a drive unit with an integrated gear box and attach a drive shaft.

Worst way to do it: stick an electric motor on the end of the B transmission and end up with maximum power loss, maximum weight, minimum space efficiency and a vestigial gearbox you won't use. This is also the easiest and most common.

I'm treating the battery pack as a separate problem, as you're going to have to deal with it regardless :) Your choice of power unit will dictate how much room you have for batteries. They're also liable to be the expensive part.

I'd start by coming up with goals. Performance, range, speed. Then find what's out there that you can use.

In reply to NOHOME :

Start browsing.....Electric Vehicle Parts – Canadian Electric Vehicles (canev.com)Electric Vehicle Parts – Canadian Electric Vehicles (canev.com)

Hope your pockets are deep. I looked into this a year ago. To make it even to a 60mi range, your talking a minimum of 10k, and that's with doing all of it yourself. If your not a *good* electrical wirer, you can die. If you mess something up, you'll burn the car up, hopefully without anyone inside. 
 

I don't want to discourage you, but I do want you to see the pitfalls that lay ahead. 

Some places to start.

v@vajingo:

While I am not a hack, I do not yet know what I dont know, so that could get me in trouble. Hence the toe in the water.

Trying to get some idea of how to relate KWhours into usable range for around town driving.

So far the only donors I see are Volt and Leaf platforms.  Too long and wide to do a chassis swap and make life easy.

Unfortunately, until the superconductor and perpetual motion become household items, ev's will not be either environmentally friendly, nor affordable. That being said, as I novelty, I have had many cars and mini trucks I thought would be cool conversions!  The GT would be assume. As long as you realize the cost and negative environmental impact going in. No point of use gaseous emissions would definitely be a plus! 40 mile round trip is probably a bit easier (and less expensive) to achieve. 

I have had similar thoughts. I currently drive 1.5 miles each way per day.

I thought I'd start with an electric motorcycle or bicycle, but I'd love to learn from your experience.

I own a T-shirt that says "Pave the Rainforest" so we can be pretty sure that environmental considerations are not on the requirement list.

Own only one child, so done my bit for the environment in perpetuity.

"Get in and drive to buddies house around the corner" is probably the top of the list.  Grocery shopping a few miles further would be #2.  Work at 7 miles away would be next. So maybe I dont need 60 miles. What do most DIY guys shoot for?

As I no longer have the patience to wait for the engine to warm up or tolerance of the hydrocarbon aroma on my person when I arrive somewhere, I thought why NOT go electric?

Because it is an uncertain and much more expensive way to go, perhaps?

Much better off, IMHO, to buy a kit to transplant a GM V6 into it. Instant starting, no fumes, fuel injected and foolproof.  You also get a 5 speed (normally a T5) and enhanced crushing comfort.  This is  well traveled road and therefor far cheaper than trying to be a pioneer with an electric conversion on what is essentially a play toy.

I only suggest the GM V6 route because it is so well developed - there are other alternatives like Miata, Ford V8, Rover V8 etc. that may cost more and for which you may not be able to buy one comprehensive kit of parts.

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

In reply to NOHOME :

Start browsing.....Electric Vehicle Parts – Canadian Electric Vehicles (canev.com)Electric Vehicle Parts – Canadian Electric Vehicles (canev.com)

Deep sense of fore shadowing I may consider a conversion project once I am settled in the new house and those guys are about ten minutes away.

I

Chassis swap is unlikely, as a lot of EVs are a skateboard chassis and you'd end up with something that looks like a car body on a truck chassis. 

Electrifying may not be the cheap option, but it would be an interesting one. They're different to drive and have some very cool attributes. One thing to realize - you'll be able to hear squeaks and rattles more easily when you don't have an antique MG lump masking them :)

Fuel injection, tuned for drivability and running stoich as much as possible, and a converter?

It still might take a while to make the small, iron-rich engine warm up to operating temperature, but a half decently calibrated injection system will keep you from really noticing this.

I was shopping for Smart EQ cars (EV) and seeing that copart gets runners for not a lot of money since they have a range around 90 miles and most want more.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

For the reasons you mention, I flirted with EFI on the Molvo's 302 and it did not end well. Could never get it to work as advertised.

In reply to matthewmcl (Forum Supporter) :

Do they have the same twist beam rear suspension encapsulating the drivetrain setup that the internal combustion Smarts have?  The drivetrain might be a fairly easy swap to where a solid axle once lived.

The next issue would be the battery, since IIRC Smarts were built on the skateboard paradigm to start with.

You've stated that environmental reasons aren't important but as a side note our electrical energy in Ontario is pretty green, we don't burn that black dirty E36 M3 that some people think is still viable here, instead it is all Nuclear (obvious waste problems there but not the CO2 issues), Hydro, Wind, Solar and then some Natural Gas to pump up the grid as needed. 

I think this is a great idea, maybe it isn't feasible quite yet but it is getting there. I'm guessing buying a complete damaged Leaf from a place like copart or impactauto.ca would be the most affordable way to getting a drivetrain and battery, whether that fits nicely into an MGB or not I don't know. Car and Driver got an average of 58 miles of range out of their longterm 2011 Leaf which weighed around 3300 lbs, you should be lighter but you will suffer aerodynamically (flat floor maybe?). 107 Hp and 207 ft-lbs of torque should be fun too. With only using the car presumably for 3 seasons that keep things simpler as far as heating you and keeping things like the batteries happy (maybe just get away with heated seats?). 

It's worth putting some energy into and seeing what is out there, the end product would be pretty fun to get around town in. I'm betting with proper execution the car could do well when it is time to move on from it too.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I am not certain about the suspension as I was not planning on using it, but I expect it all mounts up the same as a regular smart. The car production numbers are too low to have a one off construction.

I've been watching some of the videos from EV West.  They do conversions of various cars, mostly VWs and Porsches, but also some others.  It may be worth checking them out for inspiration.  https://www.youtube.com/c/EVWest/videos

I would seriously consider chopping up a different chassis to get a Leaf drivetrain under the back of the car assuming the width would work. 

I mostly don't want to see you chop this one up because I think it's pretty and doing the EV conversion well will involve some level of metal moving. 

Just dropping this here

https://www.thunderstruck-ev.com/nissan-leaf-drive-system-used.html

NOHOME said:

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

For the reasons you mention, I flirted with EFI on the Molvo's 302 and it did not end well. Could never get it to work as advertised.

V8s are kind of a pain in the ass unless you buck up for a setup that can do sequential injection, or use an intake manifold with 20" or so long runners like Ford and Chevy did when they had batch fire computers.  Otherwise the weird reversion effects starve some cylinders and overfeed some others.

My vote is buy a fiat 500e and pillage for parts. 

Rich Rebuilds on the 'tube is doing a budget swap on a new Mini Cooper.  He is pretty funny and a good source of information.

For gas power...ecotec swap?

I saw a crashed Leaf on CL for $1500; I bought a Fiat 500e for $500 to do a similar swap but they never shipped it and I had to get a refund. Still annoyed by that one....

I dont like the expense of the DIY kits out there. Very expensive for what you end up with.

matthewmcl (Forum Supporter) said:

I was shopping for Smart EQ cars (EV) and seeing that copart gets runners for not a lot of money since they have a range around 90 miles and most want more.

You may be on to the winning plan here.

This is the engine from the smart EV. Track width is 51" and MGB is 49".   Disclaimer: engine does not look right for the car, but the subframe and gear box I am pretty sure are smart car items.

Bonus points for being a rear wheel drive setup so no steering to deal with. Looks like 4 bolt installation into the structure of your choice.

As always good to have a full donor to harvest the small bits. Can I use the battery pack and graft it into the GT since the tunnel will no longer be required?

At 72" you would need to stretch it 6" to fit under the MGB.  Could be doable.

wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) (Forum Supporter) said:

I thought I'd start with an electric motorcycle or bicycle, but I'd love to learn from your experience.

 

This is where I would start. I built an AWD (2 wheels driven) 1000w bicycle. Crazy fast and technically illegal. Taught me a lot about electricity.